Justin Bieber goes Steampunk?

I have hardly recovered from this rather drastic bout of influenza, along comes the next thing that send me reeling:

Justin Bieber is using steampunk gear in his latest video/photo shoot:

The image came to me via æthermail, it is also already making the rounds in the usual virtual gathering places. I do not intend any copyright challenge and will remove the image if asked to do so.
As far as I could find out, the people at Skinznhydez have supplied the gauntlet pictured and can very likely expect good business in the foreseeable future. The extra exposure alone they get through this…

But what can we make of this? Has steampunk now entered the main stream on a really broad front or is Justin Bieber genuinely interested in the style, esthetics and subculture? Or is this some sort of image-shift attempt, taking him from teenage heart-throb to… ummmm… Rocker?

I have no idea, what his reasons were, I can only speculate. One thing I am reasonably certain about: This will not cause a gigantic influx of early-teen girls into the scene. The Twilight Saga failed to produce such an effect on the goth scene so why should one video/photo shoot now make steampunk something hip for young teens?

If steampunk should really be going mainstream, well, the EuroSteam Convention is still in the planning stages and we can still expand, if all of a sudden a few thousand new people show interest.